FUN STUFF
Amazing Nature Videos
Saving Valentina
We all know how much harm people can do to the environment—but sometimes people do something very good. Here is a wonderful, inspiring example of a family who saved a great whale … and got a special surprise in return.
How Whales Change Climate
And speaking of whales, I love this video from Sustainable Human.
Radiance
Here’s a beautiful video about Aurora Borealis.
Overview
‘Overview’ is a short film that explores this phenomenon through interviews with five astronauts who have experienced the Overview Effect – an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it.
The Aquarium from Home
I love the Monterey Bay Aquarium and I never miss a chance to visit when I’m in the area. This cool playlist allows you to visit the aquarium and get up close to their amazing, unique, and sometimes downright goofy residents right from your home!
Animal Facts
Ever wondered how big a narwhal’s tusk can grow? Curious about pangolins? Check out this fun series on Animal Facts from World Wildlife Fund to learn about these and other unique creatures.
Recommended Articles by Others
Visit In the Media for nature articles written by or about T. A. Barron.
The word-hoard: Robert Macfarlane on rewilding our language of landscape
TheGuardian.com | Feb 2015
TheGuardian.com | Feb 2015
Nature Quotes
Speaking of Robert Macfarlane, here’s one of my favorite quotes from him:
“Ultimately and most importantly, mountains quicken our sense of wonder. The true blessing of mountains is not that they provide a challenge or a contest, something to be overcome and dominated (although this is how many people have approached them). It is that they offer something gentler and infinitely more powerful: they make us ready to credit marvels – whether it is the dark swirls which water makes beneath a plate of ice, or the feel of the soft pelts of moss which form on the lee sides of boulders and trees. Being in the mountains reignites our astonishment at the simplest transactions of the physical world: a snowflake a millionth of an ounce in weight falling on to one’s outstretched palm, water patiently carving a tunnel in a face of granite, the apparently motiveless shift of a stone in a scree-filled gully. To put a hand down and feel the ridges and scores in a rock where a glacier has passed, to hear how a hillside comes alive with moving water after a rain shower, to see late summer light filling miles of landscape like an inexhaustible liquid – none of these is a trivial experience. Mountains return to us the priceless capacity for wonder which can so insensibly be leaved away by modern existence, and they urge us to apply that wonder to our own everyday lives.”
— Robert MacFarlane
“Ultimately and most importantly, mountains quicken our sense of wonder. The true blessing of mountains is not that they provide a challenge or a contest, something to be overcome and dominated (although this is how many people have approached them). It is that they offer something gentler and infinitely more powerful: they make us ready to credit marvels – whether it is the dark swirls which water makes beneath a plate of ice, or the feel of the soft pelts of moss which form on the lee sides of boulders and trees. Being in the mountains reignites our astonishment at the simplest transactions of the physical world: a snowflake a millionth of an ounce in weight falling on to one’s outstretched palm, water patiently carving a tunnel in a face of granite, the apparently motiveless shift of a stone in a scree-filled gully. To put a hand down and feel the ridges and scores in a rock where a glacier has passed, to hear how a hillside comes alive with moving water after a rain shower, to see late summer light filling miles of landscape like an inexhaustible liquid – none of these is a trivial experience. Mountains return to us the priceless capacity for wonder which can so insensibly be leaved away by modern existence, and they urge us to apply that wonder to our own everyday lives.”
— Robert MacFarlane
I visited a wonderful school in Los Angeles where they say this pledge every day, along with the Pledge of Allegiance. Together, they make a truly inspiring start for the day!
THE PLEDGE TO THE EARTH
I pledge allegiance to the Earth on which I stand, one world, one people, undivided, with nature, food, shelter, and justice for all.